The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. P2002-211564 filed on Jul. 19, 2002 including specification, claims, drawings, and summary is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pillar trim structure for fixing a pillar trim on a pillar.
2. Description of the Related Art
A pillar trim made of a resin, for example, is usually mounted as an interior part to cover a pillar of a vehicle. The pillar trim is intended to improve appearance of an interior of the vehicle and to improve protection of a passenger when the passenger comes into contact with the pillar.
Here, an ordinary method of prior art is to mount the pillar trim on the pillar by means of screws. However, this method not only involves the cost for the screws but also takes the step of fastening the screws. Thus, in recent years, there has been developed and practiced a structure, in which the pillar trim can be simply mounted by providing it with a clip and by retaining the clip in the holes of the pillar.
Recently, on the other hand, there has been developed a vehicle equipped with a curtain type airbag housed in a roof side portion for protecting the head of the passenger. In the vehicle equipped with such an airbag, a device has been made to prevent the pillar trim from easily falling off when the airbag is deployed.
JP-A-2000-168482, for example, discloses a construction, in which the pillar trim is provided with clips and engagement holes whereas a roof side member is provided with engagement projections so that the engagement holes may engage with the engagement projections, even when the airbag is deployed to push the pillar trim into the compartment, to prevent the pillar trim from falling off.
JP-A-2001-310699, on the other hand, discloses a construction, in which the pillar trim is provided with clips and retained pawls so that the pillar trim may be prevented, even when the airbag is deployed to push the pillar trim into the compartment, from falling off by the pawls retained on the pillar.
However, the construction disclosed in JP-A-2000-168482 has problems that the cost is raised because it is necessary to enhance the rigidity and strength of the engagement projections, and that the engagement projections come, while the vehicle is running, into contact with the peripheral edges of the engagement holes thereby to causes noises.
On the other hand, the construction disclosed in JP-A-2001-310699 can prevent the pillar trim sufficiently from falling off once the retained pawls are retained by the pillar, but has a problem that the pillar trim may be difficult to demount, when mistaken equipments are attached or when recycling the vehicle after being scrapped.
The present invention has been conceived to solve those problems and has an object to provide a pillar trim structure, which can be easily mounted/demounted with a simple construction while being prevented from falling off.
In order to achieve the above-specified object, according to the present invention, there is provided a pillar trim structure, which comprises: a first retained member having its one end fixed on the vehicular widthwise face of the pillar trim and extended to the side of the pillar and its other end retained in a first hole formed in the pillar; and a second retained member having its one end fixed on the vehicular widthwise face of the pillar trim and extended to the side of the pillar and its other end retained in a second hole formed in the pillar. In the pillar trim structure, the engagements between the first retained member and the second retained member, and the pillar can be released by deforming the pillar trim to separate the other end of the first retained member and the other end of the second retained member from each other.
Therefore, the pillar trim is stably fixed on the pillar side by the first retained member and the second retained member so that the pillar trim can be prevented from easily falling off. By deforming the pillar trim to separate the other end of the first retained member and the other end of the second retained member from each other, moreover, the retentions between the first retained member and the second retained member, and the pillar can be released to demount the pillar trim reliably and easily from the pillar, if desired so.